wiki and automatic tutorial

[Robin Shannon]

G'day all,

Just before i start, i should introduce myself to the list. My name's
robin, im an aussie, and a newbie to linux. I've been using Hoary
since it was released.

Two comments on the documentation that may or may not have been raised
elsewhere. Firstly; the wiki. Is there any chance of moving to wiki
software that supports talk pages. This would to some extent combine
the wiki and the forum, since users would be able to ask questions on
the talk page, and it would then be simple to put the the information
from any answers back into the main article. For this to work, it is
also vital to have watchlists. More advanced wiki-markup, for easy use
of tables and latex and the like would also be useful. I am a very
active participant in the wikimedia (wikipedia, wiktionary, wikinews,
wikibooks etc.) group of wikis, so i am perhaps biased toward the
mediawiki software, but it really does have a lot of very useful
features that our wiki would benifit from. I understand that there are
scripts avaliable from turning various other wiki markup into
wikimedia-markup, but i dont know the details.

The second thing is realting to a post i made on the forum, which i paste below:
"What ubuntu really needs, to be able to fight windoze and OSX (other
than the bling already mentioned) is a built-in tutorial as an option
at the end of the instillation. There would be four different
tutorials (plus an option to say i dont want no stinking tutorial).
The four would be beginer (this is my first computer), intermediate
(ive come from windoze/OSX), advanced (ive come from a different linux
distro), and update (ive come from the previous version of Ubuntu and
want to know what's new).

It would include lots of the info from these forums, the wiki, the
unofficial guide etc, but would colate it all in one place, and have
its target audience in mind. It would cover basic configuration of
your system, getting it to work on a network/from behind a proxy,
explanation of some core linux concepts, and it would also cover basic
apps such as synaptic, firefox, evolution, open office, rythymbox,
gtkpod. It would include a tutorial in the terminal for intermediate
users, and stuff that im not aware of for advanced users (not being an
advanced user and all).

Is there already a plan for something similar (i couldnt see anything
in the breezy goals). If so how can i get involved. If not how can i
get it started? - note: I am well and truely still discovering many
things in ubuntu as it is, so i would need a whole heap of help."

I was pointed to this list, but not told if such a project existed or not.

Anyway, sorry if it sounds like im telling anyone what to do, im just
offereing a perspective of what me, as an end user, would like to see.
So far what everyone involved in ubuntu has done is great, but we need
to take it to the next level, and docs are really the only area i am
able to help in. Though with luck, my attempt to learn to program will
pay off and i can get involved in the tech side aswell, but for now i
will be trying to help out here as much as i can here (which due to
afore mentioned newbie status is less than i would like it to be).

peace out,
-rjs. 

-- 
hit me: <robin.shannon.id.au>
jab me: <robin.shannon at jabber.org.au>

This work is released into the public domain.
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